Special Places

Everybody knows that Keanu Reeves was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his performance in the film, “The Devil’s Advocate.” It should have been sealed by his delivery of a single question which he asks of Heather Matarazzo in a completely un-cliché court room scene, “Have you ever played a game called “Special Places?”

Reach into your memory. Everyone’s got that Special Place, be it a place where you and your friends can always go, where everybody knows your name, where the promise of a high school boy getting laid is high, or a surreal or magical world of beasts, death and the greatest World’s Fair ever is nigh.

Let us play a game called Special Places. We will explore but a few, as depicted from a selection of the Curator’s permanent collection.

Porky’s – The holy grail of Special Places, where a fat-ass redneck holds the key to unlocking your loathsome virginity. The journey to, from, and back to Porky’s is a laugh riot of raunchy sexual escapades. If you grew up in the ‘50s. Porky’s may get destroyed in the end, but it will always hold a special, hick-ified place our hearts, what with the apropos naming of students based on their junk size (“Meat” and “Peewee”), Kim Cattrell’s totally unfunny, long-lasting collie-howling orgasm, and of course Ms. Ballbricker yanking the unsuspecting penis out by it’s roots, through the infamous shower hole.

Pleasantville – a lovely little special place, where you can live in a dream world of non -confrontation, non-conformity and non-sexual climax. Until Reese Witherspoon has her way with you anyway, blasting you out of black and white celluloid into full blown Technicolor. Is your perceived reality a false one? Are you closing your eyes to the glory of the world, for all its good AND bad qualities, around you? Are the subtle color references first introduced through the discovery of a single rose a meaningful, eye-opening, life-changing experience, or are these as vapid and meaningless as a sixteen-year-old photography student discovering the “art” of the hand-colored photograph? The Curator leaves it to you to decide, as you tinker with the limits of your own “special places.”

Meet Me in St. Louis – The comfort food of the Special Places film world, “Meet Me…” offers up a retreat to a simpler time, when one’s deepest, darkest fear could simply be the ripping of oneself from the awesomeness that is St. Louis and being supplanted into the terrible world of a booming New York City. How dare Daddy try to move us right when the World Fair is threatening to make St. Louis “the center of the entire Universe!” And we can’t move Grandpa or the Chickens. Jesus Christ, Pop! Moreover, the singular lesson the film is that one should not leave their hometown, the specialist of all places, because the grass may be greener, but it certainly couldn’t be Special-er.

Threesome – Due to a University computer system mishap, the dorm room of “3S” is a paradise of sexual exploration waiting to happen. Never mind that the un-sexy adventurers are the skeletal Lara Flynn Boyle, evangelical convert Stephen Baldwin, and absolute nobody Josh Charles. Alex loves Eddy, Eddy loves Stewart, Stewart loves Alex. What to do, what to do. The only obvious answer is of course, Threesome!! 3S temporarily offers asylum to our trio, but as always, the Outside World (a decidedly “Un-special” Place) creeps in, in the forms of jealousy, uncomfortable social interaction and the gratuitous pregnancy scare. Well shit, dudes. It was fun while it lasted.

Jurassic Park – Somewhere off the coast of Costa Rica lay a very secret and Special Place. Lush, green, subject to sudden and unexpected tropical storms, it is far enough away from the prying eyes of the world to become a rich man’s playground in DNA experimentation while he plays God. Only the truly evil, well, the truly conflicted, characters bite it here on the island, while the righteous are besotted with notions of man versus nature, natural selection, various expounded upon scientific theories involving, but not limited to, greed and fear. Phew. If that ain’t special, what is?

St. Elmo’s Fire – For those of you who may have blocked this little gem from your saturated minds, St. Elmo’s is the Special Place of note that our young Brat Pack attend throughout the film. We meet them on the day of their college graduation, where they emerge at age 22, and with great careers in place. They are awfully willing to become grown-ups, as demonstrated by the fact that by the end of the film, at said age of 22, they are all so immersed in adulthood responsibilities, they simultaneously forever give-up attendance and binge drinking at St. Elmo’s. This must be the result of living in a time when a college education actually afforded one a career, rather than a one way ticket back to one’s parents’ basement, to live out a life of staggering credit card and financial debt repayment. Or maybe St. Elmo’s wasn’t so Special after all.

The Abyss – despite what you might think from your memory, if any, of this movie, the Abyss is indeed a very Special Place. It is not too scary, too deep, too cold or too dramatic. Those who have ventured into the Abyss and not lived to tell the tale just did not understand the Abyss. One has to be a truly Special person, to enter into, understand, and learn from, the truly Special Place that is the Abyss. Someone just like you.

Conclusion:

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, "The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity." Clearly. But forget not, take not for granted, and give not up, your Special Place. If a place is security and space is freedom, we can only be attached to the one, but long for the other. That is, if longing represents itself in the form of loathing.